In recent years, LED (light emitting diode) lightings have become affordable and energy efficient with improvements and innovation in technology. LED lightings have gained in popularity as a result. More and more consumers and commercial users are changing to ecology friendly LED lighting for its low power and extended operating life.
However, replacing a fluorescent tube from its fixture with a newly bought standard LED tube is not a straight forward process. In most cases, rewiring the existing fixture is required in order to make the replacement. There are many ballast configurations installed on existing fixtures such as a rapid start, instant start ballast, a pre-heated ballast, parallel and series configurations ballasts, etc. that complicate the conversion process. There is no one-tube-fix-all solution available in today's market.
Furthermore, consumers are not typically educated to distinguishing the type of ballast in their lighting fixture. Rewiring is required for single ended input tubes and double ended input tubes fluorescent tubes for conversion to LED lighting. Some LED tubes designed to directly plug into an existing fixture without rewiring may have accidentally been installed on a rewired fixture that can cause burning issue. Rewiring the fixture requires a trained trade person and many home owners are afraid to perform the conversion task themselves. However, it is expensive to hire an electrician to make the replacement of a fluorescent tube to an LED tube.